About a week ago I got some very special letter in the mail. I was informed that I was a candidate for the Cambridge Who’s who of America’ something or other. I was so flattered! After years of hard work, I had achieved the vaguely defined standards of Cambridge Who’s who which is proudly (not) associated with Cambridge University. Turns out they’re a scam. It’s a good thing I figured that out when I “interviewed” for my position of prestige.
I was initially suspicious before I called and spoke to the Cambridge people. First, I don’t ever recall applying for this. I remember hearing about people signing up for the various “Who’s who” lists, but I never bothered to check it out. It is pretty harmless to give a company a call though, so I went ahead and did it anyway. After all, the chance to network is never something that I would reject.
I became increasingly wary when I was talking to some lady over the phone. She told me that I was being interviewed for inclusion in the 2009 Who’s who. The first question was one that clearly intended to get me excited about the program. After listing off all the benefits, she cheerfully asked me “how I might benefit” from the program. I pretended to not hear her clearly and asked her to repeat herself, and she did so word for word. The subsequent questions seemed almost too easy. “What is your proudest accomplishment? How long have you worked in your industry? What do you attribute your success too?” All of this was quite nauseating. If I was really “applying” for some prestigious association, they’d be asking me to send them an essay about my own biography, along with letters of recommendation, and proof that I accomplished what I said I did. Instead, this lady was just taking my word for it and massaging my ego in the process.
The final blow came when she tried the close. She gave me two options, a life time membership ($900) or a five year membership ($500). My first thought was, “I wonder if this is like when I offer customers the homemaker or the complete set before moving on to the smaller, less expensive, sets?” You don’t play a player, and when I offer someone something, it is something good. I almost called her out on it. Yet, I also knew that I would probably have to say “no” four more times before she’d hang up. Sure enough, she dropped down to some $200 offer before finally letting me go. Oh well! Looks like I’ll have to stick earning a reputation and finding employment the old fashioned way!
Let this blog be added to the hundreds of others letting people know of this scam. This organization will try to sell you on the feeling of prestige and the chance to network. But you don’t get prestige without working really hard for it first. If you need to network, use meetup, facebook, or any of the other free associations out there. When you get one of those stupid letters, go ahead and shred it.
Thanks for reading, and thanks Cutco for teaching me how to sell. Now I know when I’m getting scammed.
Midnight Mass Sermon
As I write, I am sucked in by the ad for tomorrow’s Eastenders - ‘Who is the daddy?’ Only a little while to go and we will know, perhaps!, the truth about the parentage of Roxy’s baby, Amy. I am not a fan of the soap I have to say, but it’s the sort of thing that Alex irons to and that I will half watch if I am in.
Nothing is ever simple in Walford. Families are never ordinary or normal. No 2.4 children. No happily married for 30+ years. It’s all fiction I know, and so do you, but I wonder, was Oscar WIlde right when he said, ‘All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life?’ Perhaps nearer the truth is American singer/songwriter Ani Difranco when she says, ‘...Yeah, art may imitate life. But life imitates tv...’
I am not trying to suggest that tv soaps lead the way that society lives, but I wonder whether to a degree, the media in general becomes a mirror that we can hold up and view ourselves, our famillies and our neighbourhoods in. Speaking personally, I don’t much like what I see in that mirror at the moment.
More than 70 teenagers have been violently killed this year alone. Some 3000 people have died from the Cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe. Unemployment in the UK has reached nearly 2 million - an 11 year high - a direct result of the Credit Crunch...
It is into these stories, that God, ‘the Word made flesh’ speaks. Into this world, God comes.
But St John does not tell of an arrogant Creator God, who slaps the corporate wrist and puts back everything the way that it was. John reminds us of what we celebrate tonight - God becomes flesh and blood like us, weak and needy like us, and lives among us. John literally says that God pitches His tent among us. In other words, he doesn’t move among us like some sort of ghost - in the world but not part of it. God comes into our world, living among us, as a vulnerable baby.
We celebrate the birth of that baby tonight, but that in itself is not miraculous as many babies are born in UK hospitals and homes every day. The baby we celebrate born tonight is born in poverty, but that in itself is not miraculous as many babies are born and survive in similar situations all over the world today. Tonight we are reminded of the parentage of this baby - he is God’s Son. Even that is not the Christmas miracle that we celebrate tonight.
The Christmas miracle that we celebrate tonight is that this baby grew to be a man. Through this man, God spoke and demonstrated what it means, how it feels and what it costs to love and be loved by God and each other. Through the life, death and resurrection of this man, we can not only know about God and His
ways, but we are welcomed as members of the family. The Christmas miracle we celebrate tonight is not that God becomes a human being. The Christmas miracle we celebrate tonight is that through this baby human beings can come to God.
The message of Christmas challenges our complacency an our prejudices and our misconceptions about God and humanity. For this baby was not born amongst the wealthy, the intelligent, or the powerful, but rather was born in the poorest of situations, to parents who were not formally educated and who in the eyes of others had no influence or status. God values the humanity of the ordinary man or woman so much that he chose to come amongst them, trusting them for love and life. In return he offers us as ordinary men and women love and life, and he trusts us to share it with others.
The Christmas miracle that we see and hear tonight, celebrates a God who embraces our humanity completely and sees every single one of us as a potential stand in for him. As potential stand-ins for God therefore we each need to be treated with value, dignity and respect: the God who comes to us in humility tonight as a baby, later as a man speaks forcefully to our pride, our economic and social status, our sense of justice and the importance of our sheer human worth, and calls us to simply love each other. As such, in the killing, raping and
looting fields of Darfur; in the broken nation and a broken people of Zimbabwe who have been forcefed with injustice and can swallow no more; for the unreconciled children of Abraham in the Middle East - the Palestinians without a viable state they can call home and Israelis hungry for peace and security; for the refugees, the homeless and people caught up in human trafficking; in the walls of silence the abduction of Madeline McCann, the murder of Rhys Jones and the failure for any to take responsibility for the Omagh bombing – God is being daily violated and blasphemed.
Through the birth of Jesus, we are reminded that the tragic human plight that we see and read through the media, is God’s plight. Through the birth of Jesus, we are reminded of how much God loves that ordinary humanity, enough to make it his own. Through the birth of Jesus, we are reminded therefore that apathy to horrendous news stories is no longer an option. It is all to easy to change the channel to avoid them, but because of the birth of Jesus, those stories are not about ‘others’, but about men and women like us, amongst whom he was born, whom he trusted for love and life, and who he continues to trust to love.
Tonight we are reminded that through the birth of a baby, God clearly demonstrates the depth of his love for ordinary men an women by being born
vulnerable and helpless amongst us, trusting us for love and life. Tonight we are reminded that through the birth of a baby, God longs for each of us to be loved by
Him, to know that in the midst of complicated family life that he is our Father. Tonight we are reminded that through the birth of a baby, that we are worth loving and so should love each other in turn. Amen.
As I write, I am sucked in by the ad for tomorrow’s Eastenders - ‘Who is the daddy?’ Only a little while to go and we will know, perhaps!, the truth about the parentage of Roxy’s baby, Amy. I am not a fan of the soap I have to say, but it’s the sort of thing that Alex irons to and that I will half watch if I am in.
Nothing is ever simple in Walford. Families are never ordinary or normal. No 2.4 children. No happily married for 30+ years. It’s all fiction I know, and so do you, but I wonder, was Oscar WIlde right when he said, ‘All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life?’ Perhaps nearer the truth is American singer/songwriter Ani Difranco when she says, ‘...Yeah, art may imitate life. But life imitates tv...’
I am not trying to suggest that tv soaps lead the way that society lives, but I wonder whether to a degree, the media in general becomes a mirror that we can hold up and view ourselves, our famillies and our neighbourhoods in. Speaking personally, I don’t much like what I see in that mirror at the moment.
More than 70 teenagers have been violently killed this year alone. Some 3000 people have died from the Cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe. Unemployment in the UK has reached nearly 2 million - an 11 year high - a direct result of the Credit Crunch...
It is into these stories, that God, ‘the Word made flesh’ speaks. Into this world, God comes.
But St John does not tell of an arrogant Creator God, who slaps the corporate wrist and puts back everything the way that it was. John reminds us of what we celebrate tonight - God becomes flesh and blood like us, weak and needy like us, and lives among us. John literally says that God pitches His tent among us. In other words, he doesn’t move among us like some sort of ghost - in the world but not part of it. God comes into our world, living among us, as a vulnerable baby.
We celebrate the birth of that baby tonight, but that in itself is not miraculous as many babies are born in UK hospitals and homes every day. The baby we celebrate born tonight is born in poverty, but that in itself is not miraculous as many babies are born and survive in similar situations all over the world today. Tonight we are reminded of the parentage of this baby - he is God’s Son. Even that is not the Christmas miracle that we celebrate tonight.
The Christmas miracle that we celebrate tonight is that this baby grew to be a man. Through this man, God spoke and demonstrated what it means, how it feels and what it costs to love and be loved by God and each other. Through the life, death and resurrection of this man, we can not only know about God and His
ways, but we are welcomed as members of the family. The Christmas miracle we celebrate tonight is not that God becomes a human being. The Christmas miracle we celebrate tonight is that through this baby human beings can come to God.
The message of Christmas challenges our complacency an our prejudices and our misconceptions about God and humanity. For this baby was not born amongst the wealthy, the intelligent, or the powerful, but rather was born in the poorest of situations, to parents who were not formally educated and who in the eyes of others had no influence or status. God values the humanity of the ordinary man or woman so much that he chose to come amongst them, trusting them for love and life. In return he offers us as ordinary men and women love and life, and he trusts us to share it with others.
The Christmas miracle that we see and hear tonight, celebrates a God who embraces our humanity completely and sees every single one of us as a potential stand in for him. As potential stand-ins for God therefore we each need to be treated with value, dignity and respect: the God who comes to us in humility tonight as a baby, later as a man speaks forcefully to our pride, our economic and social status, our sense of justice and the importance of our sheer human worth, and calls us to simply love each other. As such, in the killing, raping and
looting fields of Darfur; in the broken nation and a broken people of Zimbabwe who have been forcefed with injustice and can swallow no more; for the unreconciled children of Abraham in the Middle East - the Palestinians without a viable state they can call home and Israelis hungry for peace and security; for the refugees, the homeless and people caught up in human trafficking; in the walls of silence the abduction of Madeline McCann, the murder of Rhys Jones and the failure for any to take responsibility for the Omagh bombing – God is being daily violated and blasphemed.
Through the birth of Jesus, we are reminded that the tragic human plight that we see and read through the media, is God’s plight. Through the birth of Jesus, we are reminded of how much God loves that ordinary humanity, enough to make it his own. Through the birth of Jesus, we are reminded therefore that apathy to horrendous news stories is no longer an option. It is all to easy to change the channel to avoid them, but because of the birth of Jesus, those stories are not about ‘others’, but about men and women like us, amongst whom he was born, whom he trusted for love and life, and who he continues to trust to love.
Tonight we are reminded that through the birth of a baby, God clearly demonstrates the depth of his love for ordinary men an women by being born
vulnerable and helpless amongst us, trusting us for love and life. Tonight we are reminded that through the birth of a baby, God longs for each of us to be loved by
Him, to know that in the midst of complicated family life that he is our Father. Tonight we are reminded that through the birth of a baby, that we are worth loving and so should love each other in turn. Amen.
A problem with the problem of evil
One of my favorite classes this first semester of grad school was “God and the Problem of Evil.” In short, philosophers ask how a God who is all-loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing can co-exist with all the evil that we see in the world. I came to the conclusion, and argued in a long paper, that much of the problem is how the term “God” is understood in this question. It often seems that non-theists and Christians have a different understanding of the term and both seem to miss this miscommunication. I will outline the problem and give a suggestion as to how the problem of evil changes given the specific definition of “God.”
A fellow by the name of William Rowe demonstrated the non-theist’s definition of God. He argued for “restricted theism.” This meant that there exists an all-loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing (otherwise known as the three omni’s) being, but with nothing beyond this simple definition. No sacred scriptures. No special revelations. No prophets. No Jesus. God, so defined by restricted theism, is a being with the three-omni’s and nothing else.
From here Rowe explained the problem as he sees it. He first gives vivid examples of the kind of evil we see, such as a little girl who is raped and murdered. He then argues that it is not reasonable to believe that God exists. Theists usually answer that God has reasons that are far beyond our comprehension (“noseeum” reasons) for allowing evil, but Rowe finds this inadequate for two reasons. First, by being beyond our comprehension these reasons are irrational. Secondly, God seems apathetic and distant from our suffering.
The problem with Rowe’s argument, and those non-theists like him, is they insist on working with a definition of “God” that is far to restricted. It is so restricted that very few theists actually believe in such a god. In a way, people like Rowe are batting at position that doesn’t exist, or that exists only their minds.
If Christians are going to respond to the problem of evil, we do so with our definition of God. The Christian God became man in the person of Jesus, otherwise known as the incarnation. What is properly said about Jesus, can also be said about God. This cannot be abstracted or removed without changing the definition of god as “restricted theism” wants us to. Christians do believe in the three omni’s, but not merely the three omnis.
This changes the problem of evil significantly. Rowe asks why humans suffer so much evil while God is sitting around doing nothing. Christians point to something else. According to Christianity, God himself was human and suffered evil at the hands of his enemies during the crucifixion. Now instead of the question being, “why do humans suffer so much evil?” we now have to ask, “why do humans, and God, suffer so much evil?”
The implications of this go beyond this blog, but I think it is important to sum up the correct starting point. Non-theists often define god as “a being with the three omi’s and nothing else.” Christians, in contrast, will say “God is a being who took on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and has the three omnis as well.” The problem of evil simply cannot be looked in the same way in light of this. The non-theists, as well as Christian apologists, need to keep this in mind when responding to the evil we see in the world.
Thanks for reading.
A fellow by the name of William Rowe demonstrated the non-theist’s definition of God. He argued for “restricted theism.” This meant that there exists an all-loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing (otherwise known as the three omni’s) being, but with nothing beyond this simple definition. No sacred scriptures. No special revelations. No prophets. No Jesus. God, so defined by restricted theism, is a being with the three-omni’s and nothing else.
From here Rowe explained the problem as he sees it. He first gives vivid examples of the kind of evil we see, such as a little girl who is raped and murdered. He then argues that it is not reasonable to believe that God exists. Theists usually answer that God has reasons that are far beyond our comprehension (“noseeum” reasons) for allowing evil, but Rowe finds this inadequate for two reasons. First, by being beyond our comprehension these reasons are irrational. Secondly, God seems apathetic and distant from our suffering.
The problem with Rowe’s argument, and those non-theists like him, is they insist on working with a definition of “God” that is far to restricted. It is so restricted that very few theists actually believe in such a god. In a way, people like Rowe are batting at position that doesn’t exist, or that exists only their minds.
If Christians are going to respond to the problem of evil, we do so with our definition of God. The Christian God became man in the person of Jesus, otherwise known as the incarnation. What is properly said about Jesus, can also be said about God. This cannot be abstracted or removed without changing the definition of god as “restricted theism” wants us to. Christians do believe in the three omni’s, but not merely the three omnis.
This changes the problem of evil significantly. Rowe asks why humans suffer so much evil while God is sitting around doing nothing. Christians point to something else. According to Christianity, God himself was human and suffered evil at the hands of his enemies during the crucifixion. Now instead of the question being, “why do humans suffer so much evil?” we now have to ask, “why do humans, and God, suffer so much evil?”
The implications of this go beyond this blog, but I think it is important to sum up the correct starting point. Non-theists often define god as “a being with the three omi’s and nothing else.” Christians, in contrast, will say “God is a being who took on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and has the three omnis as well.” The problem of evil simply cannot be looked in the same way in light of this. The non-theists, as well as Christian apologists, need to keep this in mind when responding to the evil we see in the world.
Thanks for reading.
Herewith the third Advent address about Heaven. This was preached by Jane Smart, on of our Readers, on 17th December 2008.
“Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you, in my Fathers house there are many rooms, do not let your hearts be troubled believe in God and also in me.”
Jesus goes to prepare a place for us, by dying on the cross. He makes the way back to God possible, because God always wanted us to have a relationship with him, he loves us and wants us to love him, but we were given free will to choose, he did not want us to be like puppets without life. We were made in Gods image and he wants us to freely choose to live Gods way, just as Jesus did. Jesus glorified God by doing his will.
But people ever since Adam and Eve have thought they could do better and have followed their own will instead, hence the fall and sin making it impossible for God to continue his relationship with us.
So Jesus came to show us what God is like and just how much he truly loves us.
Heaven is where God is and where Gods will is done, where there is no sin or rebellion, where there is a relationship with God and also with others. Heaven is a community. Also it is a place of power don’t forget God is so powerful that he spoke and the universe was created. It is a place not of this world, but it is near by. However it is not several billion light years away, with angels in nightdresses, fluffy clouds, and Philadelphia cheese!!!
Jesus met peoples needs with real answers, he healed the sick, gave the blind sight, made the dumb speak, the deaf hear and the paralysed walk.
Jesus showed them the love that God has for everyone; they had never encountered such love before. Jesus reached out to those shunned by society, teaching us to love our neighbours and our enemies and helping others as we would like to be helped, turning this worlds values upside down.
Now for a story…
A man had a dream where an angel showed him the difference between Heaven and Hell.
The Angel took him to Heaven first to see what it was like. He saw a large room with a big long table laden with a banquet of all sorts of delicious foods imaginable and everyone present was happy laughing and enjoying themselves.
Next the Angel took him to see Hell. The man saw again a long table laden with excellent food in a large room; the only difference he could see was that everyone there was miserable and unhappy. The man could not understand it at all. So he spoke to the Angel and asked why he could not see any difference between the two except everyone in hell was miserable and not enjoying the feast.
The Angel replied that the guests are given chopsticks to eat the food but the chopsticks are two feet long. The difference being that in Heaven everyone feeds their neighbour!
Love changes things; everything is viewed in a new way. Just as a lake looks threatening dark and dangerous under a cloudy grey sky, but suddenly the sun breaks through the cloud and the lake becomes breathtakingly beautiful as the suns rays glisten on the water.
Heaven is where Gods will is done in love, thinking of others before ourselves, it is being in the right relationship with God, with ourselves and others. Which means to accept trust and obey God, just as Jesus did.
Realizing that Jesus died in our place on the cross. Only God can save us, the king’s job is to save his people and that is what Jesus did. By accepting Jesus as our saviour we become citizens of the kingdom of Heaven now!
We are then called to go and share the Good news with others. We cannot just sit back and do nothing like in the parable of the talents, where the man buried his talent in the ground. We are to share our gifts showing by the way we live Gods love for us all, to make a stand against the world, which is only concerned with survival not Peace and Love. Amen
“Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you, in my Fathers house there are many rooms, do not let your hearts be troubled believe in God and also in me.”
Jesus goes to prepare a place for us, by dying on the cross. He makes the way back to God possible, because God always wanted us to have a relationship with him, he loves us and wants us to love him, but we were given free will to choose, he did not want us to be like puppets without life. We were made in Gods image and he wants us to freely choose to live Gods way, just as Jesus did. Jesus glorified God by doing his will.
But people ever since Adam and Eve have thought they could do better and have followed their own will instead, hence the fall and sin making it impossible for God to continue his relationship with us.
So Jesus came to show us what God is like and just how much he truly loves us.
Heaven is where God is and where Gods will is done, where there is no sin or rebellion, where there is a relationship with God and also with others. Heaven is a community. Also it is a place of power don’t forget God is so powerful that he spoke and the universe was created. It is a place not of this world, but it is near by. However it is not several billion light years away, with angels in nightdresses, fluffy clouds, and Philadelphia cheese!!!
Jesus met peoples needs with real answers, he healed the sick, gave the blind sight, made the dumb speak, the deaf hear and the paralysed walk.
Jesus showed them the love that God has for everyone; they had never encountered such love before. Jesus reached out to those shunned by society, teaching us to love our neighbours and our enemies and helping others as we would like to be helped, turning this worlds values upside down.
Now for a story…
A man had a dream where an angel showed him the difference between Heaven and Hell.
The Angel took him to Heaven first to see what it was like. He saw a large room with a big long table laden with a banquet of all sorts of delicious foods imaginable and everyone present was happy laughing and enjoying themselves.
Next the Angel took him to see Hell. The man saw again a long table laden with excellent food in a large room; the only difference he could see was that everyone there was miserable and unhappy. The man could not understand it at all. So he spoke to the Angel and asked why he could not see any difference between the two except everyone in hell was miserable and not enjoying the feast.
The Angel replied that the guests are given chopsticks to eat the food but the chopsticks are two feet long. The difference being that in Heaven everyone feeds their neighbour!
Love changes things; everything is viewed in a new way. Just as a lake looks threatening dark and dangerous under a cloudy grey sky, but suddenly the sun breaks through the cloud and the lake becomes breathtakingly beautiful as the suns rays glisten on the water.
Heaven is where Gods will is done in love, thinking of others before ourselves, it is being in the right relationship with God, with ourselves and others. Which means to accept trust and obey God, just as Jesus did.
Realizing that Jesus died in our place on the cross. Only God can save us, the king’s job is to save his people and that is what Jesus did. By accepting Jesus as our saviour we become citizens of the kingdom of Heaven now!
We are then called to go and share the Good news with others. We cannot just sit back and do nothing like in the parable of the talents, where the man buried his talent in the ground. We are to share our gifts showing by the way we live Gods love for us all, to make a stand against the world, which is only concerned with survival not Peace and Love. Amen
Myth of the One
There is a common evangelical myth that God picked out a spouse for you, and that are you are destined to meet this person. I don’t know why it has taken me so long to blog on this. This subject has come up in many conversations with my friends. More than a few events in the past few years have made reflect on the gravity of this error. I have no idea where my blog will go in relation to this. For this blog, I can only describe its ugly consequences. For sake of brevity, I will call the idea that God picks our spouses for us as the “myth of the one.”
Some of you may have read God of the Possible
. In it, Greg Boyd relates the tragic parable of “Susan.” Susan came to him very angry one day. It took Greg Boyd some time to figure it out that she was angry at God. Susan had a dream to be a missionary to Taiwan, and she believed strongly in the myth of the one. She met a nice man who also wanted to be a missionary. They dated. He eventually proposed. Surprisingly, instead of saying yes right away, she prayed about it for some time. God told her that this was, indeed, “the one.”
The story book marriage did not go well. He had an affair. They reconciled through careful pastoral care, but he cheated on her again. He was emotionally abusive on top of that. They finally divorced, but it was only afterwards that she found out that she was pregnant. So much for Jeremiah 29:11.
Now we all know what the “myth of the one” is supposed to look like. The whole point of the myth of the one is that such trauma should never occur. God somehow brings us to beatific relationships that last. What we do is just “seek him.” Dating is supposed to be replaced with “courting” for these reasons. Once God has ‘revealed’ our spouse, our relationship should happy and fulfilling. The Susan story is a dramatic counter-example to this. Further examples could abound, but I need to repeat them here.
I know that most people who are reading this do not believe in the myth of the one. Obviously, I do not either. However, I think that there a lot of Christians who do. I think the consequences, like the Susan story, are horrible. Contrary to preparing people for marriage, actually often encourages premature marriages.
Some may object at this point. Someone reading this could be thinking that they followed, or knew someone who followed, the myth of the one and are happily married. To this I say, “Congratulations, I’m happy for you.” As happy as that is, it still does not overcome the numerous Susan stories out there. To be sure, there are many people who do “find the one,” but I cannot help but feel they are an exception.
What I have never figured out, is exactly where this myth comes from. Did it start in youth ministries as the only way to curb the hormones? Was it someone’s own resolution to a bad dating relationship? Does it come out of perfectionism? Some ultra-strong version of Calvinism?
If anyone has any ideas, I am quite open to them.
Some of you may have read God of the Possible
. In it, Greg Boyd relates the tragic parable of “Susan.” Susan came to him very angry one day. It took Greg Boyd some time to figure it out that she was angry at God. Susan had a dream to be a missionary to Taiwan, and she believed strongly in the myth of the one. She met a nice man who also wanted to be a missionary. They dated. He eventually proposed. Surprisingly, instead of saying yes right away, she prayed about it for some time. God told her that this was, indeed, “the one.”The story book marriage did not go well. He had an affair. They reconciled through careful pastoral care, but he cheated on her again. He was emotionally abusive on top of that. They finally divorced, but it was only afterwards that she found out that she was pregnant. So much for Jeremiah 29:11.
Now we all know what the “myth of the one” is supposed to look like. The whole point of the myth of the one is that such trauma should never occur. God somehow brings us to beatific relationships that last. What we do is just “seek him.” Dating is supposed to be replaced with “courting” for these reasons. Once God has ‘revealed’ our spouse, our relationship should happy and fulfilling. The Susan story is a dramatic counter-example to this. Further examples could abound, but I need to repeat them here.
I know that most people who are reading this do not believe in the myth of the one. Obviously, I do not either. However, I think that there a lot of Christians who do. I think the consequences, like the Susan story, are horrible. Contrary to preparing people for marriage, actually often encourages premature marriages.
Some may object at this point. Someone reading this could be thinking that they followed, or knew someone who followed, the myth of the one and are happily married. To this I say, “Congratulations, I’m happy for you.” As happy as that is, it still does not overcome the numerous Susan stories out there. To be sure, there are many people who do “find the one,” but I cannot help but feel they are an exception.
What I have never figured out, is exactly where this myth comes from. Did it start in youth ministries as the only way to curb the hormones? Was it someone’s own resolution to a bad dating relationship? Does it come out of perfectionism? Some ultra-strong version of Calvinism?
If anyone has any ideas, I am quite open to them.
Herewith the 2nd of four Advent addresses on the 4 Last Things. Today, judgement...
You will have heard the expression, ‘You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.’ This though is just not true! We do it all the time... We constantly make, judgements about people by the way they look, their clothes, their hairstyle, skin colour, age, sex and so on.
As Shakespeare’s Hamlet put it, "Aye, there’s the rub." It is the thought of judgment that strikes fear into the Christian soul. Who among us dares to stand face-to-face with God? Who among us dares to own the darkness that lurks within us? The very word judgment becomes, in our minds, condemnation.
That’s not the dictionary definition of the word. Webster speaks of authoritative opinion, a formal court decision, discernment and comparison.
More importantly, the people who shaped our faith centuries ago, the Jewish people who were Jesus’ own forebears, didn’t think of condemnation when they spoke of judgment. They didn’t see themselves as defendants in a criminal court. Rather, they saw themselves as plaintiffs in a civil action, seeking redress from God for their suffering. Go back and re-read the Book of Job or Daniel for the detail.
Like their Jewish ancestors, Christians await vindication. Speaking of the signs that announce his imminent return on the last day, Jesus told his followers to
"stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand" (Luke 21:28). We fear condemnation because we too easily focus on our own weaknesses and failures rather than on God’s goodness. In truth, were the scales of justice truly balanced, we would surely stand condemned. Nothing we do, nothing we are comes within light-years of God’s holiness. The bottom line is not that we must earn eternal life but, rather, that God has lovingly given it to us. "God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us," Paul wrote (Romans 5:8). And Jesus prayed that his disciples and all future believers "may be with me where I am" (John 17:24).
St. Paul speaks of facing judgment with imagery that again recalls birth: "At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12, emphasis added). We wear a lot of masks to keep from being known. Perhaps no one judges us more harshly than we judge ourselves. But every now and then someone catches us off guard by peeking behind our masks and loving us as we are—a surprise someone called the most magical: "God’s finger on one’s shoulder." Truly, no one knows us so well and yet loves us with such enduring passion as God does.
Centuries of Christian art reflect many changes in our understanding of Christ’s triumphant return and final judgement. That event was eagerly awaited by the first believers. Into the early Middle Ages, works of art suggest joy rather than terror. Typical is a carving on the tomb of a bishop buried in 608: The elect, wakening from death’s sleep, lift their arms to acclaim the returning Lord. Some 500 years later, another detail appears: the separation of the damned, the scene Jesus describes in Matthew 25:31-46. Their misery becomes more dominant and more horribly detailed as the centuries roll by.
The reasons for the change are too complex to explore here, but it seems apparent that Christianity took a rather gloomy turn after its first millennium ended without Jesus’ return on clouds of glory. The Dies Irae, a hymn describing the terrors of Judgment Day, became part of the funeral liturgy and remained until the post-Vatican II liturgical reform.
This morning’s Gospel reading reminds us that we must not, should not, can can not judge. In Jesus day, sheep and goats looked very alike, almost identical. The untrained eye could not tell them apart only the shepherd. Jesus the Good Shepherd who can discern the righteous from the unrighteous because he sees not the cover of the book, but the nakedness of the human heart with all it’s drives and motives exposed.
The theologian Mirolsav Wolf reminds us that not only are dependent on God to fulfill the longings of our hearts, as we are made in His image. Our need of God goes far deeper. Wolf reminds us that all that we have, all that we are is borrowed by us, given to us as a gift from God. Not even life itself is ours to do with what we wish. As God created human beings, He breathed into them the breath of life - the essence of life itself. We are all created equal in God’s sight, and are equally in need of the grace of God our heavenly father. God made us equally and loves us equally even in judgement.
Jesus judges us but does not condemn us, and neither should we. The story of Jesus’ encounter with the women caught in adultery remind us that it is all too human to condemn. On that day, Jesus reminded us that only the sinless can judge, God alone, and when he does he e looks at each of us in love and in judgement. On the scales of judgement God finds us guilty of falling short of His standards, His expectations through our sinfulness, but rather he balances out the judgement with the weight of love shown in the Cross of Christ.
We judge others by appearance as a means to make sense of our lives and our world, yet we are reminded that despite the superficial differences we define others by, God sees us as equal, made in His image through His love. It is through that same loving nature that God judges our motives and drives, challenging us not judge or condemn, rather to love and love and love just as He does.
You will have heard the expression, ‘You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.’ This though is just not true! We do it all the time... We constantly make, judgements about people by the way they look, their clothes, their hairstyle, skin colour, age, sex and so on.
As Shakespeare’s Hamlet put it, "Aye, there’s the rub." It is the thought of judgment that strikes fear into the Christian soul. Who among us dares to stand face-to-face with God? Who among us dares to own the darkness that lurks within us? The very word judgment becomes, in our minds, condemnation.
That’s not the dictionary definition of the word. Webster speaks of authoritative opinion, a formal court decision, discernment and comparison.
More importantly, the people who shaped our faith centuries ago, the Jewish people who were Jesus’ own forebears, didn’t think of condemnation when they spoke of judgment. They didn’t see themselves as defendants in a criminal court. Rather, they saw themselves as plaintiffs in a civil action, seeking redress from God for their suffering. Go back and re-read the Book of Job or Daniel for the detail.
Like their Jewish ancestors, Christians await vindication. Speaking of the signs that announce his imminent return on the last day, Jesus told his followers to
"stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand" (Luke 21:28). We fear condemnation because we too easily focus on our own weaknesses and failures rather than on God’s goodness. In truth, were the scales of justice truly balanced, we would surely stand condemned. Nothing we do, nothing we are comes within light-years of God’s holiness. The bottom line is not that we must earn eternal life but, rather, that God has lovingly given it to us. "God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us," Paul wrote (Romans 5:8). And Jesus prayed that his disciples and all future believers "may be with me where I am" (John 17:24).
St. Paul speaks of facing judgment with imagery that again recalls birth: "At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12, emphasis added). We wear a lot of masks to keep from being known. Perhaps no one judges us more harshly than we judge ourselves. But every now and then someone catches us off guard by peeking behind our masks and loving us as we are—a surprise someone called the most magical: "God’s finger on one’s shoulder." Truly, no one knows us so well and yet loves us with such enduring passion as God does.
Centuries of Christian art reflect many changes in our understanding of Christ’s triumphant return and final judgement. That event was eagerly awaited by the first believers. Into the early Middle Ages, works of art suggest joy rather than terror. Typical is a carving on the tomb of a bishop buried in 608: The elect, wakening from death’s sleep, lift their arms to acclaim the returning Lord. Some 500 years later, another detail appears: the separation of the damned, the scene Jesus describes in Matthew 25:31-46. Their misery becomes more dominant and more horribly detailed as the centuries roll by.
The reasons for the change are too complex to explore here, but it seems apparent that Christianity took a rather gloomy turn after its first millennium ended without Jesus’ return on clouds of glory. The Dies Irae, a hymn describing the terrors of Judgment Day, became part of the funeral liturgy and remained until the post-Vatican II liturgical reform.
This morning’s Gospel reading reminds us that we must not, should not, can can not judge. In Jesus day, sheep and goats looked very alike, almost identical. The untrained eye could not tell them apart only the shepherd. Jesus the Good Shepherd who can discern the righteous from the unrighteous because he sees not the cover of the book, but the nakedness of the human heart with all it’s drives and motives exposed.
The theologian Mirolsav Wolf reminds us that not only are dependent on God to fulfill the longings of our hearts, as we are made in His image. Our need of God goes far deeper. Wolf reminds us that all that we have, all that we are is borrowed by us, given to us as a gift from God. Not even life itself is ours to do with what we wish. As God created human beings, He breathed into them the breath of life - the essence of life itself. We are all created equal in God’s sight, and are equally in need of the grace of God our heavenly father. God made us equally and loves us equally even in judgement.
Jesus judges us but does not condemn us, and neither should we. The story of Jesus’ encounter with the women caught in adultery remind us that it is all too human to condemn. On that day, Jesus reminded us that only the sinless can judge, God alone, and when he does he e looks at each of us in love and in judgement. On the scales of judgement God finds us guilty of falling short of His standards, His expectations through our sinfulness, but rather he balances out the judgement with the weight of love shown in the Cross of Christ.
We judge others by appearance as a means to make sense of our lives and our world, yet we are reminded that despite the superficial differences we define others by, God sees us as equal, made in His image through His love. It is through that same loving nature that God judges our motives and drives, challenging us not judge or condemn, rather to love and love and love just as He does.
De Mercatorum et Scolasticos
Everyone has some kind of tension in their life. In fact, we’re usually pulled several different directions at the same time. Lately, I have been in tension about my chosen career path, and my time in Grad school. Am I to be a merchant or a scholar?
I still love academic life, for the most part. The thoughtful approach to things does not come difficultly for me. I enjoy what I read. I enjoy it when I write. The hard work that goes into writing a good paper is always rewarding. There is still a lot that I find fascinating. There is still a lot that I want to read. I still hope to become a published author someday. This has been part of who I am and what I do for years now. I don’t regret that little ring on my desk that has “BA Theology” written on it for one second.
But I also really appreciate the world of businesses, selling, and finance. I am an admitted capitalist. This has been stewing for years, but was finally triggered by Cutco this summer. Cutco, the direct selling of knives, is the kind of job I wish I found when I was nineteen. There is something about a job that quickly, and objectively, rewards good work. There is something great about working a job that teaches you something, indeed many things that are valuable for other jobs and life in general.
In both of these worlds I am surrounded by people I admire and am motivated by. Cutco is full of some of the hardest working people I have ever met. Academia is filled with the wisest and most ascetic. Both groups are driven to be the best at what they do and pull as many people as they can along with them. Both groups remind me of who I should be.
Another part of the tension is my future employability and my financial flourishing. When I am some old man, I do not want to be burden to the next generation. I want to be the benefactor to the next generation. I know that a big part of that depends on how much money I make and save over the next five to ten years. Professors do not make much. The market is flooded with people looking for the humble goal of “adjunct.” My first job will 40k/year if I’m lucky. I reflect on this and remember that I turned down a 30k/year + commission job to come to this school. Some people may think that this is greed, but I have come to believe that being successful financial involves the eschewing of greed.
Of course, I doubt any course I may go on. After all, am I just doing grad school (or considering a capitalist career) for anything other than yet another mark of my own prestige and accomplishment? Even when I think that I got over the pride issue and say I am willing to give it all up, am I still hoping for another ring on the finger or feather in the cap?
Finally, there is the sense of God in all of this. I am not a burning bush kind of guy. I would never expect God to send Gabriel or write instructions on a bedroom wall for me. I don’t think God usually does that, and I am perfectly fine with it. After all, I don’t expect to know that God worked in something until hindsight. That has at least been the pattern in my life so far. This doesn’t mean I have no sense of God’s activity. There are, signs that others have pointed out for me. After all, I did get into a good program without even having majored in the subject. Maybe that means I am supposed to be here.
I’ll end this blog with a short quote from St. Ignatius’ exercises. It seems appropriate in somehow:
Thanks for reading.
I still love academic life, for the most part. The thoughtful approach to things does not come difficultly for me. I enjoy what I read. I enjoy it when I write. The hard work that goes into writing a good paper is always rewarding. There is still a lot that I find fascinating. There is still a lot that I want to read. I still hope to become a published author someday. This has been part of who I am and what I do for years now. I don’t regret that little ring on my desk that has “BA Theology” written on it for one second.
But I also really appreciate the world of businesses, selling, and finance. I am an admitted capitalist. This has been stewing for years, but was finally triggered by Cutco this summer. Cutco, the direct selling of knives, is the kind of job I wish I found when I was nineteen. There is something about a job that quickly, and objectively, rewards good work. There is something great about working a job that teaches you something, indeed many things that are valuable for other jobs and life in general.
In both of these worlds I am surrounded by people I admire and am motivated by. Cutco is full of some of the hardest working people I have ever met. Academia is filled with the wisest and most ascetic. Both groups are driven to be the best at what they do and pull as many people as they can along with them. Both groups remind me of who I should be.
Another part of the tension is my future employability and my financial flourishing. When I am some old man, I do not want to be burden to the next generation. I want to be the benefactor to the next generation. I know that a big part of that depends on how much money I make and save over the next five to ten years. Professors do not make much. The market is flooded with people looking for the humble goal of “adjunct.” My first job will 40k/year if I’m lucky. I reflect on this and remember that I turned down a 30k/year + commission job to come to this school. Some people may think that this is greed, but I have come to believe that being successful financial involves the eschewing of greed.
Of course, I doubt any course I may go on. After all, am I just doing grad school (or considering a capitalist career) for anything other than yet another mark of my own prestige and accomplishment? Even when I think that I got over the pride issue and say I am willing to give it all up, am I still hoping for another ring on the finger or feather in the cap?
Finally, there is the sense of God in all of this. I am not a burning bush kind of guy. I would never expect God to send Gabriel or write instructions on a bedroom wall for me. I don’t think God usually does that, and I am perfectly fine with it. After all, I don’t expect to know that God worked in something until hindsight. That has at least been the pattern in my life so far. This doesn’t mean I have no sense of God’s activity. There are, signs that others have pointed out for me. After all, I did get into a good program without even having majored in the subject. Maybe that means I am supposed to be here.
I’ll end this blog with a short quote from St. Ignatius’ exercises. It seems appropriate in somehow:
Human beings are created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by means of doing this to save their souls…we ought to desire and choose only that which is more conducive to the end for which we are created.
Thanks for reading.
Job Opportunity - Adminstrator
The Team Parish of Chambersbury
wish to appoint a
Parish Administrator
This is a large and busy Parish currently consisting of three churches:
St Mary’s in Apsley End
Holy Trinity in Leverstock Green
St Benedict’s in Bennetts End.
You will report directly to the Rector and assist in the following tasks:
The production of the Parish publications
Central administration of parochial fees
Central contact point for baptism, wedding, funeral enquiries
Liaison with other Team Members and Church officers
Co ordination of Parish diary and events
Wedding registers and quarterly returns
Other administrative work as required
The skills required are:
Experience of MS Office is essential
An ability to work as part of a busy team
Maintenance of accuracy whilst under pressure
A smile and a sense of humour!
The post is for 15 hours per week in the afternoons.
Initially, this post will be for one year with a salary in the region of £7,000.
The employee will be based at the Parish Office, All Saints, Kings Langley, and will work with the current Administrator of All Saints.
In the first instance please apply in writing to:
The Revd: David M Lawson
St Mary’s Vicarage
7 Belswains Lane
Hemel Hempstead
HP3 9PN
The deadline for receipt of applications is Tuesday December 16th 2008. Interviews will be held on Friday December 19th 2008.
Enhanced CRB disclosure will be required for this post.
The Team Parish of Chambersbury
wish to appoint a
Parish Administrator
This is a large and busy Parish currently consisting of three churches:
St Mary’s in Apsley End
Holy Trinity in Leverstock Green
St Benedict’s in Bennetts End.
You will report directly to the Rector and assist in the following tasks:
The production of the Parish publications
Central administration of parochial fees
Central contact point for baptism, wedding, funeral enquiries
Liaison with other Team Members and Church officers
Co ordination of Parish diary and events
Wedding registers and quarterly returns
Other administrative work as required
The skills required are:
Experience of MS Office is essential
An ability to work as part of a busy team
Maintenance of accuracy whilst under pressure
A smile and a sense of humour!
The post is for 15 hours per week in the afternoons.
Initially, this post will be for one year with a salary in the region of £7,000.
The employee will be based at the Parish Office, All Saints, Kings Langley, and will work with the current Administrator of All Saints.
In the first instance please apply in writing to:
The Revd: David M Lawson
St Mary’s Vicarage
7 Belswains Lane
Hemel Hempstead
HP3 9PN
The deadline for receipt of applications is Tuesday December 16th 2008. Interviews will be held on Friday December 19th 2008.
Enhanced CRB disclosure will be required for this post.
Musings on the day of infamy
Okay, okay, so I haven’t blogged in awhile. Honestly, all my work is pouring into papers right now. But today is an important day and warrants some reflection -more than normal reflection.
Today is a day that most of my generation does not think on, but there is still a loyal minority that does. Today was the day the Pearl Harbor was bombed some sixty years ago. I know most of you who read this are not ignorant of history, so I don’t have to go into the significance of that event. Suffice to say, I remember it out of a sense of admiration of the greatest generation. They really rose to the occasion out of a great tragedy. The honored dead that day deserve to be remembered.
But I wonder, why do we remember this day so much but ignore of Aug 14/15? This day was V-J day –victory over Japan. It was the end of violent imperialism. It was the end of fighting. It was the release of POWs. It was the day soldiers were sent home safely. Most importantly, it was the beginning of a reconciliation of two nations. After all, Japan and the United States are now political allies.
I feel that this is the day that should stick in our memories at least as strongly as Pearl Harbor. After all, didn’t this day have a hand in the creation of the world as it is now? Do we not want to remember the end of a war, as well as the beginning?
I guess I am not sure why this is the case. Either way, I hope to remember Aug 14th this coming year too.
What follows is the first Advent address on the Four Last Things... This week... death... I am indebted especially to Richard Holloway and his book 'Anger,Sex, Doubt, Death'
They say that there are only 2 things certain in life - death and taxes. In the current financial climate I wouldn’t dream of talking about taxes. I do though, on this the first of four Advent addresses, want to talk about death.
During Advent, the church has traditionally meditated on what it calls the Four Last Things - death, judgement, heaven and hell. They are traditionally the things that the dying contemplate on before the inevitable, or to put another way, they are the four things that the dead encounter after death.
In society in general death is marginalised. In former generations death usually occurred at home and was followed by burial in the churchyard at the centre of the community; more typically nowadays death happens in an institution followed by a funeral at an out of town venue. In order to put off the idea of our mortality we use an increasing array of means to mitigate the effects of ageing - creams, diets, exercise, surgery etc. And its not just that purple is the new black, no, today 60 is the new 40.
Funerals themselves have changed. In the Book of Common Prayer there the service was frankly entitled ‘Burial of the dead’. More and more we have ‘Services of Thanksgiving.’ The funeral is turned into a version of ‘This is your life’; the death of the subject is conveniently ignored. And even within supposedly Christian funerals there is pressure for elements which are scarcely compatible with Christian belief. All too often I am asked if we can have what purports to be a poem about death:
Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was…
These words were written by Henry Scott Holland when he was a Canon of St Paul’s cathedral in London. But they weren’t written as a poem, these words, and the longer version usually quoted, were part of a sermon. Scott Holland fashions these words to encapsulate one response to death, a response which often comes in the immediate wake of a death but which swiftly evaporates. Alongside this response to death he expressed another view,
Death ‘makes all we do here meaningless and empty…. It is the cruel ambush into which we are snared... It is the pit of destruction. It wrecks, it defeats, it shatters It makes its horrible breach in our gladness with careless and inhuman disregard of us. We get no consideration from it. Often and often it stumbles in
like an evil mischance, like a feckless misfortune. Its shadow falls across our natural sunlight, and we are swept off into some black abyss. There is no light or hope in the grave; there is no reason to be wrung out of it.’
Though from the same Scott Holland sermon, this extract is not read at funerals.
But death for the Christian is neither ‘nothing at all’ nor is there ‘no light or hope in the grave’, as the Canon goes on to explain.
Paul writes in Rom 6:23 ‘the wages of sin is death’. Death is a serious thing, it is not a trivial or illusory as the first scenario from Scott Holland suggests. But Paul’s verse continues ‘but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’. Therefore the second scenario from Scott Holland is also wide of the mark. For us as Christians therefore we can own on the one hand the seriousness of death, but also to our hope that it does not have the final word; hence Paul can taunt death, I Cor 15:55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O grave, is your sting?"
Christian hope in the face of death is an abiding trust in the God who called us out of nothing into life and who will call us again to life out of the second nothing of death. We have no security in ourselves, no false hopes, no naive longings. Our only ground for hope is the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
This hope is founded on expectation - on the expectation that death is not the end of life and that hope is rooted in God alone. Our expectations lie in the promise of a reliable God who already, in Christ, set the action of our resurrection in motion. God defeated death by raising Christ from the dead at Easter, and his resurrection is the assurance and beginning our of resurrection.
Death reminds us that we are indeed mortal. Dust we are and to dust we shall return. But remember out of that dust God made human beings and to that dust he gave the gift of life an through faith in Christ he brings that dust to the kingdom of heaven.
Death reminds us of the weakness but also the glory of humanity. Weakness because the universe ultimately defeats us, brings us to dissolution and reminds us that we are dust just dust. We must never be tempted to see Christ’s own death as at best God’s identification to our plight or at worst God’s last ditch rescue mission, for Christ’s death on the cross stands between our fallenness and our fulfilment, between the dust from which we come and the glory towards which we move, between Eden and the New Jerusalem. The resurrection of Jesus confirms this for us. We may be dust, but we assured through the resurrection of Christ, that we are glorious dust through the will of Him who had the first word not allowing death to have the last word. Amen
They say that there are only 2 things certain in life - death and taxes. In the current financial climate I wouldn’t dream of talking about taxes. I do though, on this the first of four Advent addresses, want to talk about death.
During Advent, the church has traditionally meditated on what it calls the Four Last Things - death, judgement, heaven and hell. They are traditionally the things that the dying contemplate on before the inevitable, or to put another way, they are the four things that the dead encounter after death.
In society in general death is marginalised. In former generations death usually occurred at home and was followed by burial in the churchyard at the centre of the community; more typically nowadays death happens in an institution followed by a funeral at an out of town venue. In order to put off the idea of our mortality we use an increasing array of means to mitigate the effects of ageing - creams, diets, exercise, surgery etc. And its not just that purple is the new black, no, today 60 is the new 40.
Funerals themselves have changed. In the Book of Common Prayer there the service was frankly entitled ‘Burial of the dead’. More and more we have ‘Services of Thanksgiving.’ The funeral is turned into a version of ‘This is your life’; the death of the subject is conveniently ignored. And even within supposedly Christian funerals there is pressure for elements which are scarcely compatible with Christian belief. All too often I am asked if we can have what purports to be a poem about death:
Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was…
These words were written by Henry Scott Holland when he was a Canon of St Paul’s cathedral in London. But they weren’t written as a poem, these words, and the longer version usually quoted, were part of a sermon. Scott Holland fashions these words to encapsulate one response to death, a response which often comes in the immediate wake of a death but which swiftly evaporates. Alongside this response to death he expressed another view,
Death ‘makes all we do here meaningless and empty…. It is the cruel ambush into which we are snared... It is the pit of destruction. It wrecks, it defeats, it shatters It makes its horrible breach in our gladness with careless and inhuman disregard of us. We get no consideration from it. Often and often it stumbles in
like an evil mischance, like a feckless misfortune. Its shadow falls across our natural sunlight, and we are swept off into some black abyss. There is no light or hope in the grave; there is no reason to be wrung out of it.’
Though from the same Scott Holland sermon, this extract is not read at funerals.
But death for the Christian is neither ‘nothing at all’ nor is there ‘no light or hope in the grave’, as the Canon goes on to explain.
Paul writes in Rom 6:23 ‘the wages of sin is death’. Death is a serious thing, it is not a trivial or illusory as the first scenario from Scott Holland suggests. But Paul’s verse continues ‘but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord’. Therefore the second scenario from Scott Holland is also wide of the mark. For us as Christians therefore we can own on the one hand the seriousness of death, but also to our hope that it does not have the final word; hence Paul can taunt death, I Cor 15:55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O grave, is your sting?"
Christian hope in the face of death is an abiding trust in the God who called us out of nothing into life and who will call us again to life out of the second nothing of death. We have no security in ourselves, no false hopes, no naive longings. Our only ground for hope is the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
This hope is founded on expectation - on the expectation that death is not the end of life and that hope is rooted in God alone. Our expectations lie in the promise of a reliable God who already, in Christ, set the action of our resurrection in motion. God defeated death by raising Christ from the dead at Easter, and his resurrection is the assurance and beginning our of resurrection.
Death reminds us that we are indeed mortal. Dust we are and to dust we shall return. But remember out of that dust God made human beings and to that dust he gave the gift of life an through faith in Christ he brings that dust to the kingdom of heaven.
Death reminds us of the weakness but also the glory of humanity. Weakness because the universe ultimately defeats us, brings us to dissolution and reminds us that we are dust just dust. We must never be tempted to see Christ’s own death as at best God’s identification to our plight or at worst God’s last ditch rescue mission, for Christ’s death on the cross stands between our fallenness and our fulfilment, between the dust from which we come and the glory towards which we move, between Eden and the New Jerusalem. The resurrection of Jesus confirms this for us. We may be dust, but we assured through the resurrection of Christ, that we are glorious dust through the will of Him who had the first word not allowing death to have the last word. Amen
The Buncefield Trial is to begin... here is the text of the press release from the HSE...
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE)and the Environment Agency (the EA) are to prosecute five companies following the explosions and fire at the Buncefield Oil Storage Depot, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire in December 2005.Criminal proceedings have been commenced against Total UK Ltd, Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd; British Pipeline Agency Ltd;TAV Engineering Ltd; and Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Ltd following a thorough and complex criminal investigationconducted by the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency.
The initial court date has been fixed for 23 January 2009 at West Hertfordshire Magistrates Court, Clarendon Road,Watford,Hertfordshire, WD17 1ST. The prosecution ofthe five defendants in relation to the Buncefield incident is now a matter for the Court. HSEand theEA are unable to comment further on the decision to prosecute.Notes to editors:
1. On 11 December 2005, a number of explosions occurred at Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in Hemel Hempstead. At least one of the initial explosions was of massive proportions and there was a large fire and over 40 people were injured. Following the explosion,aMajor Incident Investigation Board (MIIB) was established by the Health and Safety Commission, supported by theBoard of the Environment Agency, under section 14 (2)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.Lord Newton was appointed to chair the MIIB whichhas carried out an extensive investigation into the causes of the incident and ways to avoid similar incidents in the futureand has published a number of reports.
2. The Government responded to the work of the MIIB on 13 November 2008. Lord McKenzie, DWP Minister responsible for health and safety made a written statement in the House of Lords.
3. The EA in England and Wales,Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)in Scotland, and HSE are jointly responsible (the Competent Authority) for regulating non nuclear major hazardous industrial sites in the UK under the Control of Major Accident Hazard Regulations 1999 (COMAH). COMAH requires operators of major hazard sites subject to the Regulations to take all measures necessary to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences to persons and the environment. Operators of top tier COMAH sites (like Buncefield) are also required to submit written safety reports to the Competent Authority; and to prepare emergency plans to deal with the consequences of a major accident. Operators and others (including contractors, designers and suppliers) also have relevant duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and under other environmental legislation to protect land, air and water, including the Water Resources Act 1991.
4. The MIIB was not appointed to take any decisions on legal proceedings that fall to be considered under the criminal investigation.Decisions on criminal proceedings are forHSE and theEA (and HSE andSEPA in Scotland) as the enforcing authorities under the relevant regulations.
5. The details of the charges are as follows:
5.1 Total UK Ltd of 40 Clarendon Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, is facing three charges:Between the 1st day of January 2003 and the 12th day of December 2005 Total UK Ltd failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees, contrary to Section 2(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.Between the 1st day of January 2003 and 12th day of December 2005, Total UK Ltd failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment were not exposed to risks to their health or safety, contrary to Sections 3(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.Between the 10th day of December 2005 and the 31st day of December 2005, Total UK Ltd caused polluting matter, namely fuel and firewater chemicals to enter controlled waters, namely ground waters in the chalk aquifer underlying the vicinity of Buncefield, contrary to sections 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.
5.2 Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd, of 40 Clarendon Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, is facing two charges:Between the 1st day of January 2003 and the 12th day of December 2005, Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd failed to take all measures necessary to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences to persons and the environment, contrary to Regulation 4 of the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 and section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.Between the 10th day of December 2005 and the 31st day of December 2005, Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd caused polluting matter, namely fuel and firewater chemicals to enter controlled waters, namely ground waters in the chalk aquifer underlying the vicinity of Buncefield, contrary to s.85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.
5.3British Pipeline Agency Ltd, of 5 – 7 Alexandra Road, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, is facing two charges:Between the 18th day of November 2001 and the 12th day of December 2005, British Pipeline Agency Ltd failed to take all measures necessary to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences to persons and the environment, contrary to Regulation 4 of the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 and section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.Between the 10th day of December 2005 and the 31st day of December 2005, British Pipeline Agency Ltd caused polluting matter, namely fuel and firewater chemicals to enter controlled waters, namely ground waters in the chalk aquifer underlying the vicinity of Buncefield, contrary to s.85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.
5.4 TAV Engineering Ltd, of The Oriel, Sydenham Road, Guildford, Surrey, is facing one charge:Between the 1st day of October 2003 and the 12th day of December 2005, TAV Engineering Limited failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment were not exposed to risks to their health or safety, contrary to Sections 3(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.5.5 Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Ltd, c/o Rooney Associates 2nd Floor, 19 Castle Street, Liverpool, is facing one charge:Between the 28th day of September 2003 and the 12th day of December 2005 Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Limited failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment were not exposed to risks to their health or safety, contrary to Sections 3(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974...
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE)and the Environment Agency (the EA) are to prosecute five companies following the explosions and fire at the Buncefield Oil Storage Depot, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire in December 2005.Criminal proceedings have been commenced against Total UK Ltd, Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd; British Pipeline Agency Ltd;TAV Engineering Ltd; and Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Ltd following a thorough and complex criminal investigationconducted by the Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency.
The initial court date has been fixed for 23 January 2009 at West Hertfordshire Magistrates Court, Clarendon Road,Watford,Hertfordshire, WD17 1ST. The prosecution ofthe five defendants in relation to the Buncefield incident is now a matter for the Court. HSEand theEA are unable to comment further on the decision to prosecute.Notes to editors:
1. On 11 December 2005, a number of explosions occurred at Buncefield Oil Storage Depot in Hemel Hempstead. At least one of the initial explosions was of massive proportions and there was a large fire and over 40 people were injured. Following the explosion,aMajor Incident Investigation Board (MIIB) was established by the Health and Safety Commission, supported by theBoard of the Environment Agency, under section 14 (2)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.Lord Newton was appointed to chair the MIIB whichhas carried out an extensive investigation into the causes of the incident and ways to avoid similar incidents in the futureand has published a number of reports.
2. The Government responded to the work of the MIIB on 13 November 2008. Lord McKenzie, DWP Minister responsible for health and safety made a written statement in the House of Lords.
3. The EA in England and Wales,Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)in Scotland, and HSE are jointly responsible (the Competent Authority) for regulating non nuclear major hazardous industrial sites in the UK under the Control of Major Accident Hazard Regulations 1999 (COMAH). COMAH requires operators of major hazard sites subject to the Regulations to take all measures necessary to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences to persons and the environment. Operators of top tier COMAH sites (like Buncefield) are also required to submit written safety reports to the Competent Authority; and to prepare emergency plans to deal with the consequences of a major accident. Operators and others (including contractors, designers and suppliers) also have relevant duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and under other environmental legislation to protect land, air and water, including the Water Resources Act 1991.
4. The MIIB was not appointed to take any decisions on legal proceedings that fall to be considered under the criminal investigation.Decisions on criminal proceedings are forHSE and theEA (and HSE andSEPA in Scotland) as the enforcing authorities under the relevant regulations.
5. The details of the charges are as follows:
5.1 Total UK Ltd of 40 Clarendon Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, is facing three charges:Between the 1st day of January 2003 and the 12th day of December 2005 Total UK Ltd failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of its employees, contrary to Section 2(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.Between the 1st day of January 2003 and 12th day of December 2005, Total UK Ltd failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment were not exposed to risks to their health or safety, contrary to Sections 3(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.Between the 10th day of December 2005 and the 31st day of December 2005, Total UK Ltd caused polluting matter, namely fuel and firewater chemicals to enter controlled waters, namely ground waters in the chalk aquifer underlying the vicinity of Buncefield, contrary to sections 85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.
5.2 Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd, of 40 Clarendon Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, is facing two charges:Between the 1st day of January 2003 and the 12th day of December 2005, Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd failed to take all measures necessary to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences to persons and the environment, contrary to Regulation 4 of the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 and section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.Between the 10th day of December 2005 and the 31st day of December 2005, Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd caused polluting matter, namely fuel and firewater chemicals to enter controlled waters, namely ground waters in the chalk aquifer underlying the vicinity of Buncefield, contrary to s.85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.
5.3British Pipeline Agency Ltd, of 5 – 7 Alexandra Road, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, is facing two charges:Between the 18th day of November 2001 and the 12th day of December 2005, British Pipeline Agency Ltd failed to take all measures necessary to prevent major accidents and limit their consequences to persons and the environment, contrary to Regulation 4 of the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 1999 and section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.Between the 10th day of December 2005 and the 31st day of December 2005, British Pipeline Agency Ltd caused polluting matter, namely fuel and firewater chemicals to enter controlled waters, namely ground waters in the chalk aquifer underlying the vicinity of Buncefield, contrary to s.85(1) and (6) of the Water Resources Act 1991.
5.4 TAV Engineering Ltd, of The Oriel, Sydenham Road, Guildford, Surrey, is facing one charge:Between the 1st day of October 2003 and the 12th day of December 2005, TAV Engineering Limited failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment were not exposed to risks to their health or safety, contrary to Sections 3(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.5.5 Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Ltd, c/o Rooney Associates 2nd Floor, 19 Castle Street, Liverpool, is facing one charge:Between the 28th day of September 2003 and the 12th day of December 2005 Motherwell Control Systems 2003 Limited failed to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in their employment were not exposed to risks to their health or safety, contrary to Sections 3(1) and 33(1)(a) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974...
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